Quote of the Day

"We're only here briefly, and while I'm here I want to allow myself joy. So fuck it."

- Amy, Her.

Tuesday, 19 July 2011

Trailer Tuesday: The Dark Knight Rises

IT IS HERE.

After debuting in front of Harry Potter this week, The Dark Knight Rises teaser trailer has finally hit the internet. Something I'm very happy of, because when I watched HP, the trailer didn't turn up (Damn you, local cinema!). So here it is in all its incy-wincy-oh-so-teasy 1 minute and 36 seconds, dissected by yours truly. There's no synopsis, because no story details have been released as of yet, so just know that this is the concluding third of Christopher Nolan's epic Batrilogy. Yes, I am coining that word now (tell your friends).

Hold onto your seats, people; this is it:
(Please, please, please click on the video first so that you can get it in 720p (good quality) and a better size! This small screen size of shame is not worthy of the greatness about to cross your eyes.)

(Back?)Breakdown:

0:13 - So we open with a "Rising" shot of a dark and gritty Gotham building, fitting the mis en scene Nolan has laid out in the previous two films.

Josh Pence: A young Ra's al Ghul/ Liam Neeson

0:15-0:38 - There's a couple of bold titles coming up reading "Every hero has a journey" and "Every journey has an end", signifying the end of this incarnation. Then there's the shots taken from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, showing the journey Bruce Wayne has taken to become Batman. On top of all this there's that Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson) quote from Batman Begins, saying "If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, then you become something else entirely; a legend, Mr Wayne, a legend.". I've heard that Ra's plays a big role in this one, and that you can expect some flashback scenes involving a young Ra's, played by Josh Pence (The Social Network). It's also been rumoured that Marion Cotillard (Inception) 's role known as "Miranda Tate" is an alias for Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Ra's. How this might play in could be an awesome turn around to take the series full circle, with the Ghul family behind it all along. Who knows?

0:39-1:06 - Batman's friend and trusted associate, Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), seems to have winded up in hospital, in what seems to be a critical condition. I've managed to transcribe what he says: "We were in this together... and then you were gone... And now this evil rises. The Batman must come back." Then Bruce replies "What if he doesn't exist any more?" "He must... he must.". Of course there's still the previous footage running over this, but I want to know how Gordon got here. Could he have been shot by a run-of-the-mill perp, which would signify Batman's absence? Or maybe been beat up by new baddie Bane (who we'll see in a moment)? Then there's the possibility of the Clench virus putting him here. The Clench is a virus that in the comics was globally spread by Ra's in one of his evil master plans. Although this sounds a bit like the Batman Begins plot, in the original comics story, Ra's was allied with Bane and Talia was involved in it all, so it would line up with the facts we know about TDKR. In the end, Batman finds an artifact known as the "Wheel of Plagues" to eliminate the virus. That's just a theory, of course. Speculation, if you will. Plus with Gordon speaking to (presumably) Bruce Wayne directly, does this mean he now knows that he is Batman's true identity?

1:07 - Alright! Now we're talking! This here, if you can pause just at the right place, is Bane, what we are taking as TDKR's main villain, played by Tom Hardy (Inception). Now if you've seen the god awful George Clooney Batman movie, Batman and Robin, you'll know Bane as the dumb, beefed up henchman, devout on destruction in a silly wrestler outfit. DO NOT go into this thinking the same thing. In the comics, Bane was actually a very intelligent man who was raised in a prison, but got this serum known as Venom to enhance his muscles to extraordinary sizes (read: steroids). From the look of this Bane, the mask has been replaced with a mechanical looking mouth piece that come round over the head. Definitely fits the Nolan theme of gritty realism that this Batrilogy has come to be known for.

1:09 - As we near the end of the trailer, we have this rising shot into the Gotham skyline with the Bat Symbol secretly and stylishly hidden in the sky, like in the poster. Note all the buildings are literally crumbling here, with debris falling downwards, so I think it's safe to say that Gotham is going to be in some serious danger this time around. Perhaps prompting The Dark Knight's return?

1:21 - The title shows, with a creepy chanting behind. This could be something to do with Ra's al Ghul and his history in the dark arts of charm and magic. Maybe voodoo even, seeing as this is the realistic Nolan films.

1:24 - And the money shot. This is perhaps the single most important shot you will see in a trailer this year. We see Bane approaching Bats, who is looking very tired out, maybe even injured in some way. So they could have already been fighting it out for a while before this, and then here come the final duel. (I'd also like to point out that there is a man holding a gun to the pair, just off to the right, which could be a goon working for Bane in case things go wrong or a police man aiming up Bats because of what happened at the end TDK.) Batman does not look like he's winning, which leads me, and many others on the internet, to believe that this could tie into the "The Man Who Broke The Bat" storyline from the comics. In this unexpected arch, Bane broke Batman's back after an epic battle in the Batcave, which put Bats out of action for a long time. So could the conclusion to this Batrilogy that Bruce Wayne ends up crippled and unable? Or will he die? Or is Nolan just trying to throw us off the real scent with this?! Don't forget Anne Hathaway as Catwoman has got to fit into all this somewhere as well! God, Christopher Nolan is a genius. However this pans out, you just know it's going to rock your socks off in some way or another.

1:30 - The epic conclusion indeed. Summer 2012. Save the season. Or the date, which is July 20 2012. I know - a whole year!

Now that was a Trailer Tuesday. Clocking in at about 2 hours of straight work to research all the comics history, re-watch the trailer about 24 times and inserting images with edited text. Phew! So if you're now uber excited like me, then sit back and take the gruelling wait for The Dark Knight Rises to hit next year.